missing the point

from the herald

A

New Zealander has been crowned Australia's fastest reader after she became one of the first people in the world to read Dan Brown's eagerly awaited novel The Lost Symbol.

Carly Palmer, originally from St Heliers but living in Sydney for the past five months, churned through Brown's 509-page book in two hours and 34 minutes.

Her prize for beating 26 others in a competition: a $500 collection of books and transtasman bragging rights.

"We were told it would take about four hours to read the book. I guess I was lucky there were no real speed readers among them," said Miss Palmer.

The 23-year-old administrative assistant said the hype surrounding its release - a million copies were sold in the United States, Canada and Britain on the first day of sales on Tuesday - was justified.

The new tome was "definitely a better read" than Brown's controversial The Da Vinci Code, which has sold more than 80 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 44 languages since it was first published in 2003.

i know that reading dan brown is something that you'd like to get over with as quickly as possible, but still...

isn't reading a new book one of the great pleasures in life? something you want to savour?

i've got the new reginald hill and as soon as i finish my internet stuff today, i will be taking it into the garden and slowly drifting through a couple of hundred pages.

i can think of no better way to spend a sunny sunday afternoon